Hey,

Is anyone else out there kind of worried with the 3rd installments of Spider-man and X-Men?  It seems they're rushing out the prime storylines out of fear that the franchise won't last long enough to tell the story.  Venom is coming out in Spider-man, and it looks like the Phoenix is going to be in X3.  Phoenix, especially, is a huuuuuge deal in X-Men.  It's only the 3rd movie, but it has been pretty much a Wolverine movie so they need to do something if they can't find or choose not to find a replacement for Hugh Jackman (who I think is leaving after this film.)  Of course, that'll hopefully open the way for cyclops to take the role as main character.

Or, am I out to lunch on this?  Is the timing right?  are 3 movies all they can get out of 40 years of comics? is the fuel dieing down for these respective movies?  i'd like to think they'll go on for quite a while... as long as they don't Batman and Robin it.

off topic a little:  stop squealing about the kids in Harry Potter out growing their characters... Luke Perry was like 35 (I don't know really) during 90210 playing a fickin 16 year old.  Kids age and in turn will probably make them better actors.

Jamie

www.67thavenue.com

Hmm, I think I share a bit of your frustration, and honestly Venom annoys me just a bit because they keep revising his origin, and then all the "new" people to comics think whatever origin they read is the original, and anything "else" is weird. 

I mean, most of the heroes have one origin, even in multiple storylines.  The names and places might be different, but the basic premise is the same.  Venom is just radically different and has at least 3 origins that I know of (including the original), and of course will probably now have a fourth.

Anyways, to get back to the point.

I think their #1 fear in doing long series of movies is that the actors, being real flesh and blood individuals, will get leave the film, either by outright leaving, or by raising their price.  If it was possible budget wise, I think x-men would do better as a live-action tv series, but I don't think the special effect budgets are "quite" there yet (but getting close).  So consequentally they rush the storylines perhaps in the hope that they can spring the franchise in new, different directions.

For example, I heard that Hugh Jackman is actually doing a wolverine movie.  Anyone else hear that?  I also heard rumors of a Magneto movie, though Ian McKellen is getting a bit old.  If thats the case, they may hop around to different characters, which I would hope will do well(better) than x-men, which I always fully support but tend to feel like they are rushing around trying to give all the characters some screen time.

anyways, I'm seeing the movie tomorrow morning, I expect it to be "fun", but not as satisfying as I would hope it would be. I think Marvel's futures lie with animated films.  Anyone else see the Avenger's movie? It was pretty nice IMO, a first try for them, but has a lot of potential.